


Any Dream Will Do

by AlterEgon



Category: Napoleonic Era RPF
Genre: After Waterloo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-02
Updated: 2015-05-02
Packaged: 2018-03-28 17:57:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3864298
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlterEgon/pseuds/AlterEgon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The night after Waterloo, Arthur is alone with his losses.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Any Dream Will Do

His eyes went to the door again.

There was no longer any point in waiting. He had finished his meal at the far too empty table, barely tasting his food and more focused on the doorway, hoping to see another familiar face return to him.

No one had come, and the thing that he had feared ever since he had left the battlefield was starting to become solid, unavoidable truth.

He may have come out of that slaughter that he had to call a victory unscathed, but most of his friends had not.

Glancing at his plate, he was almost surprised to find it empty. A last glance at the door, then he rose, to walk over to the couch without a word. It was late. He had been up all day, with barely a rest. It would do no one any good if he broke down from lack of sleep the next day, or the day after.

He slipped out of his coat and put it aside, then busied himself with getting his feet out to their boots, each task performed with as much focus and precision as if it was another military campaign.

Finally, he stretched out on the narrow piece of furniture. Its unfamiliar shape and softness reminded him immediately of another friend, weak from his wound and subsequent amputation, to whom he had surrendered his own bed this night.

He had learned at an early age to force himself to sleep, not to allow any kind of distress to keep him tossing and turning all night without finding rest. Tonight, he could only hope that it would give him a brief to escape the terrible losses and knowledge of continued suffering all around him.

Closing his eyes, he forced his thoughts to calm, allowing exhaustion to wash over him and sleep to claim him only instants later. He needed a few hours away from the reality of the situation – a kind of escape that only dreams could offer now.

As long as it had nothing to do with battles, any dream would do.


End file.
